Bernie will be only the second US president not descended from King John Lackland.

[lumberjack_jeff]

The only other is Martin VanBuren.

[dorkzilla]

1. Interesting!

Coincidentally I too am descended from John Lackland (a trait I share with a lot of Mayflower descendants and other early settlers). Betcha we have a lot right here on this site.

[sarge43]

2. Most likely if you have any Brits in the family tree.

The real "father of his country" was John's great granddaddy, Henry I. He had 25 recognized illegitimate children, most of whom had children. Some historians believe there were again that many, not recorded.

Alison Weir's Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy

[dorkzilla]

4. I descend from John Lackland through Edward III

My "royal" lineage stops with Edward's youngest son, Thomas of Woodstock.

I put "royal" in quotes above because according to my husband, I am a royal pain in the ass.

[roguevalley]

9. Irish King and Playa Niall of the Nine Tails still has them beaten. He had 64 SONS. :D:D:D

Erin go bragh!

[Pat Riots]

10. my dad claimed to have traced my family to Niel of the 9 Hostages n/t

[roguevalley]

11. he probably is, cousin. ;)

[Pat Riots]

12. sorry Niall not Niel !

We come from Leitrum.

[roguevalley]

13. bwahahaha! We come from Tyrone and Meath. :D

[Rosa Luxemburg]

18. I guess so too?

We have Edward I, Fletcher Christian (Mutiny on the Bounty) same branch

[lumberjack_jeff]

3. Maternal family folklore has the Stuarts of Scotland and Sir Walter Raleigh. n/t

[dorkzilla]

5. That's cool!

I was recently in his "room" at the Tower of London. Raleigh is a very interesting character!

[DamnYankeeInHouston]

6. I come from Mayflower passengers. I've never heard of this John Lackland.

[lumberjack_jeff]

7. Unfamiliar with Robin Hood?

[DamnYankeeInHouston]

8. Thanks for the history lesson.

[Stardust]

14. I never heard of Lackland, either. Plantagenet, yes, Lackland, not so much. Interesting. nt

[1monster]

16. John Lackland (so named because he lacked land) was the younger brother of

Richard the Lionheart. His claim to fame was that he was the king who signed the Magna Carta (forced by his nobles). And he is the evil Prince John of the Robin Hood legends...

[Stardust]

17. Thank you.

[Zorra]

15. Extremely doubtful, and impossible to prove, unless John's skeleton is dug up and his

YDNA, mtDNA, and autosomal DNA are tested, and every US President has their skeleton tested for the same DNA components, and a connection is found among all of them. Assuming that the skeleton contains material suitable for comprehensive DNA testing.

Richard III, supposedly the descendant of Richard I, who is said to be the brother of John, is Y Haplogroup G2a, and mtDNA haplogroup J1c2c.

Without comprehensive DNA testing of all concerned, this theory of all these US presidents being related to John Lackland is virtually impossible to prove.

And given the incremental increase of the possibilities of a non-paternal event occurring with each subsequent generation, no paper trail genealogy can be said to accurately trace descent to John Lackland.